


Dueling Lessons

by wanderingaesthetic



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 14:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15121163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingaesthetic/pseuds/wanderingaesthetic
Summary: Sirius. Bellatrix. Wizard and Muggle dueling.





	Dueling Lessons

For his 11th birthday, Sirius’ father took him into Diagon Alley to buy him his first wand. Ollivander had very little trouble matching him, and the third wand he waved sparked gold: thirteen inches, ebony and dragon heartstring, unbending.

His mother asked to see it as soon as they arrived home. Sirius showed it with the tiniest hint of fear. “I’ve never known a witch with a unicorn hair wand to be worth anything,” Sirius had heard her opine. Or “He has a Dogwood wand, as if it wasn’t obvious how uncouth he is,” And, just before he and his father had left: “See to it that he doesn’t get a Hawthorn wand, Orion. Or heaven forefend, Cypress.”

Walburga Black took it from its long, thin box and examined it as if she were examining a bottle of wine. “Ebony?” she said. “And what core?”

“Dragon heartstring,” Sirius answered.

“He said it was for a wizard of distinct character, excellent for martial magic and transfiguration,” his father elaborated, laying a hand on Sirius’ shoulder.

“Hmm,” Walburga waved the wand. It did nothing. “It reacted to him?”

“Made the whole room glow!” Sirius said happily.

Walburga frowned, but handed the wand back to him and said, “It seems satisfactory.”

“Can I learn to duel now?” Sirius asked.

“You _may,_ ” Walburga said with a thin smile.

**

Sirius’ birthday was in November, nearly a year before it would be time for him to go to Hogwarts, but once a witch or wizard turned eleven, the law allowed them to practice magic in the presence of a licensed teacher. The nine months between Sirius’ eleventh birthday and the start of the school year were not to be allowed to go to waste. The same tutor who had taught him English and French and History of Magic began to teach him the basics in charms, potions, and transfiguration.

Sirius attended these lessons with interest, but what he truly looked forward to was his new teacher, who would teach him to duel.

His name was Mr. Sampson, and he was younger than Sirius expected. He was barely taller than Sirius and wore his hair in a short, chestnut ponytail at the nape of his neck. Sirius caught a glimpse of him as he met with his mother and father in the drawing room to discuss his credentials and methods.

Sirius wasn’t able to sneak in to find out what he had said, but whatever it was it must have been satisfactory, because he ruturned on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to teach Sirius how to duel.

The first time Sirius met him he pushed all the furniture in the drawing room to the sides with his wand, and said. “So, Mr. Black, or should I call you Sirius?”

Sirius grinned a little bit at the thought being called “Mr. Black” but said “Sirius is better.”

“Very well, Sirius,” Mr. Sampson said, whipping out his wand. “Why do you wish to become a duelist?”

“Well, I… er…” Sirius said, searching for an answer that didn’t sound foolish.

“I suppose you read _The Six Sovereign Sorcerors_ or maybe _The Duke’s Wands_ and thought it would be cool to learn some fancy wandwork?”

“Well… _yeah,_ ” Sirius said.

“No need to be sheepish about it. Many a young wizard longs for an adventure, and knowing how to take care of yourself in a fight is a necessary part of any adventure. But before I teach you anything, I need you to understand the gravity of what I’m going to teach you. I’m going to teach you to defend yourself against attack, and I’m going to teach you countercurses, and I’m going to teach you cast _effective_ curses. No tickling charms or jellylegs jinxes. If a wizard casts a curse on you they don’t cast a second one, do you understand?”

Sirius nodded and met his eyes.

“But secondly, unless it’s an agreed upon duel, _you will not_ cast a curse against anyone who hasn’t cast a curse against you or someone else first, be they wizard, witch, or muggle. If I find out that you have, you will never have another lesson with me. Is that clear?”

Sirius nodded again. Mr. Sampson gave him a very tiny smile. “Then we begin. How does a duel start?”

“Somebody casts a spell?” Sirius asked.

“No,” Sampson said, but not unkindly. “A duel starts with a bow. That’s how we know it’s a duel and not a fight. Now bow,” he said, bowing toward Sirius. Sirius bowed in return, feeling a little silly. “Bend at the waist but don’t take your eyes from your opponent,” he said, demonstrating. “If you don’t watch them while you bow, you’re saying that you disrespect their skill, that you don’t think they can hurt you, even if you take your eyes off them. Second, you salute. Different people have different ideas about how that should be done, but what we’re going to do is press the center of your wand against your forehead, like this, and then bring it to point toward your opponent,” he said, pointing his wand toward Sirius.

Sirius did the same. They stood with their wands pointed toward each other, Sirius rather tense, Sampson in a loose, ready stance. What was going to happen now? Was he going to get hexed? The only spell he could think of that might be useful in a duel was a spell to boil water for potions…

“To end the duel,” Sampson said, and Sirius inwardly sighed with relief. “You bow again,” he said, bowing, and gestured for Sirius to do the same. “If this a friendly duel and not a duel to the death, you reverse any spells still on your opponent, and then, if necessary, get them to their feet so you can each bow. Simple enough?”

“Yes,” Sirius agreed.

“Now, I’m going to teach you a shield charm first, and then we’re going to practice wand movements. You’re brand new to magic of any sort. I don’t expect this to come easy for you, but by the time I’m done with you your wand is going to feel like a part of your arm…. There are several shielding charms and each…”

**

“I hear you’re learning to duel, little cousin,” Bellatrix said that Christmas, when the family was all together at Sirius’ aunt and uncle’s big manor house.

“You heard right,” Sirius said casually.

“Care to challenge me?” she asked.

“Well... I dunno,” Sirius said, stalling for time while he considered it. Bella was three years older than he and had much more experience with magic. “Are you sure you want to? Doesn’t seem very ladylike.”

“I’m a witch first and a lady second,” Bella said, hooding her eyes and smiling a snakelike smile. “Don’t tell me you’re scared you’ll hurt me. I might be insulted.”

“Well, all right,” Sirius said slowly, folding his arms behind his head and watching Bellatrix very carefully. “Where do you want to do it?”

“There’s space upstairs, come on.”

Bellatrix led him up a curling staircase, away from the noise of the gathering below, and into an empty parlor. She levitated a little coffee table out of their way with a wave of her wand.

“Are you ready, Sirius?” she asked, pulling out her wand and dropping into a stance.

“Wait,” Sirius said, pulling his own wand out of his pocket. “We have to agree on terms first,” he said.

“Oh?” Bellatrix said, raising an eyebrow.

“We have to have terms or we won’t know who won,” Sirius insisted. “I mean this isn’t to the death, is it?”

“Of course not,” Bellatrix said, standing again. “What terms do you suggest?”

“First one to knock the other unconscious wins?” Sirius said after some thought. He’d been practicing stunning with Sampson. His aim was good, but he had been having trouble putting enough power in the spell to knock his teacher all the way out. Sampson would recover and hit Sirius with a stinging hex, his go-to spell to let Sirius know he had left his guard open. Still, Bellatrix was a little smaller than Sampson, and Sirius reckoned he had a chance.

“First one to knock the other unconscious wins,” Bellatrix agreed with a thin smile. “Ready?” she asked again.

Sirius bowed to her, and she mirrored his bow.

“Ready,” he agreed, and dropped into a stance.

They stared at one another for a long second, not even bothering to circle one another.

“ _Stupefy!”_ Sirius yelled, swinging his wand.

Bellatrix blocked it with a flick of the wrist, without saying the incantation. The spell ricocheted, and Sirius dove to his left to avoid his own spell.

“ _Conjunctiva,”_ Bellatrix said lazily.

Sirius managed to get a shield charm up, but it was too low to block the spell that was aimed for his eyes.

“Agh!” Sirius winced as his eyes stung and swelled. By the time he got to his feet they had swollen shut.

“ _Stupefy!”_ Sirius shouted again, not one to give up.

There was a crash.

“You hit the window,” Bellatrix observed dryly.

“ _STUP—_ agh!” he tripped over a chair mid-spell.

_“_ Now this is pathetic,” Bella said lazily. “ _Osseoperfero,_ ” she hissed.

At first nothing happened, but as Sirius pulled himself up blindly, hanging on to the chair he had knocked over, a prickling pain came over his entire body, as if he were being stabbed by a million needles, needles that were coming from the inside. He stood all the way up, and something in his knees and his hip joints seemed to hurt even worse, seemed to _tear._

He gasped in pain, and tears sprang from his swollen eyes. “I can’t--! Bella, undo the spell!”

Bellatrix cast another spell, one that bound his legs together, and he fell.

“But you’re not unconscious yet,” she purred.

Sirius struggled to push himself up, but cried out at the pain when he moved. “Undo the spell,” he begged. “I can’t fight like this. Please.”

“Those weren’t the terms we agreed on,” Bellatrix scolded him.

“You win, alright? You win,” Sirius gasped. “Just stop. Just let me up.”

Sirius knew Bella was kneeling beside him because he could hear her breath coming very fast. She was near enough to touch if only Sirius could move without excruciating pain. “It’s not a very flashy spell,” she said, nearly panting, and Sirius could hear the smile in her voice. “But it must be very painful. I haven’t seen you cry since you were in diapers.”

Sirius nodded helplessly and screamed when the movement sent knives of pain through his head and neck. Sirius heard someone running up the stairs, and Bellatrix murmured countercurses as someone entered the room.

“Sirius? Bella?” A high-pitched voice said.

Regulus. Sirius’ eyes were recovering, and he could see him blearily, standing wide-eyed with one hand on the doorframe.

“Get a grownup, Reggie, Sirius is hurt,” Bellatrix said calmly.

Sirius wanted to scream that she had done it to him, but was too afraid of the pain that came with moving to even speak.

“I’m sorry Sirius, I didn’t know it would be that bad,” Bellatrix said with feigned sincerity. Sirius grimaced and hissed through his teeth as she patted him on the back.

Bellatrix turned on the waterworks when her parents and aunts and uncles got there. Said that she hadn’t understood what the spell did, said that they were only playing.

Sirius ended up having to go to St. Mungo’s. The healers set him mostly right within less than an hour, but the skin all over his body was bruised a deep, painful purple for weeks. Bellatrix’ spell had caused his bones to grow in spines and spurs that had damaged from within.

**

“Your parents started you dueling when you were _eleven_?” James asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, before I even came to Hogwarts. I mean, why not?”

“Because that’s mental, Sirius.”

“My parents had me take karate lessons when I was even younger than that,” Remus offered. “Doesn’t seem that different.”

“You don’t have good control of your magic when you’re little,” James went on. “You can’t even enter the duelist leagues until you’re seventeen! Because it’s too easy for someone to get badly hurt.”

“Wait, Remus,” Peter said. “You know _karate_?”

“How are you supposed to enter the dueling league at seventeen if you’ve never practiced at all before that?” Sirius argued.

“Like _hyah! Hiyah!”_ Peter went on, wide-eyed, making chopping motions toward his soup bowl. “Like Martin Miggs the Mad Muggle stuff?”

“Yeah, I could stand to hear more about that,” Sirius said, peering at Remus. “You’ve been holding out on us.”

“Well,” Remus said sheepishly. “My parents thought it might be good for to be able to defend myself, so I… well… wouldn’t get bullied. And they didn’t know whether or not I would be magical yet. I didn’t really keep up with it after I came to Hogwarts, and it’s not like it’s much good against wands, and—“

“No. No, it could _totally_ be good against wands!” Sirius protested. “It’s brilliant! No one would expect it!”

“Wait, what are we talking about?” James asked.

“Muggle dueling! Remus knows muggle dueling!”

“Martial arts,” Remus corrected. “A little.”

“You’ve got to teach us,” Sirius said in a way that did not broach argument.

“Yeah!” Peter agreed. “It’ll be brilliant! Sirius can teach us how to duel and Remus can teach us how to kick people. _Hyah!_ ” he said again, chopping the table and then shaking his hand in pain when it offered more resistance than expected.

“Hey, I didn’t say I would—“ Sirius protested.

“I don’t know if I can teach—“ Remus started.

“Right. It’s decided,” James said. “We are going to be the four deadliest wizards in Britain, with or without wands. And we’re going to start tonight.”

“What happened to dueling before you’re of age being mental?” Sirius asked.

“We’re thirteen,” James said. “That’s a much more reasonable age to start dueling than eleven.”

**

“Hey, Moony,” Sirius said when it was just the two of them heading back from the castle from Care of Magical Creatures.

“Yeah?” Remus said, barely glancing at him.

“You remember back in third year when I was going to teach everyone to duel and you were going to teach everyone muggle dueling?”

“Yeah, we gave up on it after we got caught by Filch in the Defense classroom twice.”

“I’d like for you to teach me. For real this time.”

“Sirius, the last time I took lessons I was eleven, and I only did it for a couple of years anyway. I’m not even a brown belt.”

“Then we can practice what you remember and we can learn together. Anything that might help.”

“What’s got _you_ bothered?”

“I signed up for the lower division dueling tourney.”

“Ah,” Remus said. “Is that a good idea?”

“Probably not. Which is why I want any help I can get.”

Remus had a feeling he knew what was really troubling Sirius. “Is… any of your old family going to be there?”

“I dunno,” Sirius said, stopping to run a hand through his hair. “Maybe. Regulus is still too young, and I don’t think he’ll ever compete anyway. Bellatrix… probably. I heard she did really well last year, but then she may have…”

“Moved on to the real thing?”

“Yeah.”

“Should you do this, Padfoot?”

“Yes, dammit!” Sirius said, surprising Remus with his vehemence. “Dueling is the only thing from back then that I miss, and I never got to compete, and I’m not going to let them stop me!”

Remus sighed. “How long do we have?”


End file.
